Villa Nuustaku Otepaa

It's been over a week since my last entry and quite a lot has gone on, but it's all becoming part of the normal day-to-day life here and time has been absolutely *flying* by. I've been here for 7 weeks. SEVEN WEEKS. Yikes. However, this past week demonstrated to me one of the ways in which I've changed in my time here: spoken language. Obviously my English is still fine (and actually getting better because I often speak as plainly and correctly as possible when talking with people who are ...

... you would otherwise wind up leaving your coat possibly out of your line of sight. Back to Finland, the museum was INCREDIBLE. There was a ton of pre-historic stuff, including a 5.5 meter-long sledge that was dated to about 4000 B.C. and a lot of other awesome artifacts like Roman coins and such. The highlight of the museum, at least for Colin, Genevieve, and Kelsey, was the children's museum section upstairs. It was an interactive room with little exhibits where you ...

... with fresh coffee on tap. So in terms of our highly scientific survey, we're grouping the Baltics all together, so here goes: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia do a good: HOT HOT HOT looking chick (but Riga really is in a class of its own!), brightly coloured wooden house, flower garden, apple tree (they're absolutely everywhere and chockers hanging down to the ground), horse and cow in front yard (as you do!), dog on a ...

... of God Feast here. We've held it seven times since 1997. After dinner we walked around Tartu staying mostly on the famous city square where the Tartu Hansapäevad (the fair) was winding down. On the stage set up for the evening different bands played and people danced. The long hours of sunlight keep people having fun for a long time. It was fun to watch young and old dance. We are glad that Britt and Jim are enjoying the Estonian experience.

... morning, I take the articles to be copied to the copy shop. I walk about one mile. CLOSED! Not open the day after Xmas. So, I continue down to the Post Office to pick up the our PO box mail. CLOSED! Can't even get into the PO box area. Oh, well, back to the apartment and do what we can with putting return stickes on the envelopes and Estonia PO box numbers on the response cards and getting all our work prepared for the stuffing part the next day. It does take quite a while ...

... and the history of the cities before that is that of the German, Russian and Swedish overlords and traders who dominated the politics of the region. The museum instead focuses on the lives of the indigenously who lived in the countryside, the actual Estonians. So for the Estonians there national heritage is that of these simple rural settlements and there pre-modern history is not told in a linear series of dates or ...

It is my best intention to write entries such as this after every country I visit. While the reflections might be of interest to the casual reader, the practicalities probably will not, but I hope they might be of use to someone planning a trip to the country I have just visited. Reflections: I have wanted to come to Estonia since I was 12 and saw their cool ice sculpture at the Quebec City Winter Festival. Having finally made it to the country ...

... of this story, though, we must go back to last night, when my gracious host invited me to join him and some friends for an authentic Estonian sauna in the basement of his house. How could I say no? The party started in the living room adjoining the sauna, where much beer, wine, and whiskey was drunk. Conversation was in Estonian, Russian (for the Lithuanian present, who would wind up driving me to Riga today), English (for me), and French ...

... past, while white represents the attainment of enlightenment through education and also snow in winter, light nights in summer, and the Estonian birch tree. I had a very interesting talk with the hostel owners last night about their lives and what it was like in Soviet times. They said they lived in a golden prison. "You had a home, a job, and bread, but it was still a prison." The man described how having relatives abroad could hurt your ...

... a otro no ayudo. Ademas, el hotel estaba muy lejos de la estacion. Como recompensa cenamos una fantastica sopa de pollo tipica de Europa del Este con su pan negro. En la familia de Andy se mezclan antepasados rusos y polacos y el ha vivido algunas de sus tradiciones, principalmente a traves de su abuela. Estos dias le vienen algunas cosas a la mente, como recuerdos de comidas. Ma#ana dejamos Estonia en el primer autobus a las 6'45, cuatro horas de trayecto, destino Riga (Letonia)